7
Controlling Food Cost in Production
 Controlling Foodservice Costs

OH 7-2
Chapter Learning Objectives
 Develop a food production chart.
 Describe how a waste report helps control food costs.
 Use a conversion factor to calculate a new yield for an existing recipe.
 Determine a recipe’s yield and the number of portions it will produce.

OH 7-3
Monitoring Standards
 Tasting foods regularly is one way to ensure standards are met. The use of standardized recipes is another.

OH 7-4
Food That Does Not Meet the Restaurant’s Standards
 Should not be served
 Should be salvaged (all or part), if possible
 Should be discarded if not salvageable
 Increase costs
 Reduce profits

OH 7-5
Questions to Ask When Food
Fails to Meet Standards
 Is the recipe clearly written?
 Did the cook understand the recipe?

OH 7-6
Questions to Ask When Food
Fails to Meet Standards continued
 Are ingredients used in the recipe clearly labeled?
 Are the appropriate ingredients in the proper containers? (Do ingredients in containers match the containers’ labels?)
OH 7-6

OH 7-7
Determining Quantity to Produce
 Accurate food production schedules are important because
 Overproduction causes excessive leftovers and waste.
 Underproduction causes production shortages and unhappy customers.
 Both situations reduce profits!

Determining Quantity to Produce continued
OH 7-8
To maximize guest satisfaction, managers help their production staff know how much to prepare on the proper day and at the proper time.

OH 7-9
To Ensure Proper Production
 Professional managers always use food production charts!

OH 7-10
Sample Production Chart

OH 7-11
Food Production Charts
 Created by studying past sales (sales histories)
 Generally, the best predictor of what guests will buy in the future is what they purchased in the past.
 Created based upon management’s estimate of future sales

OH 7-12
When Using Production Charts
 Prepare an estimate of the number of guests to be served.
 Indicate the actual number of items to be produced.
 Post the production chart where it can be seen easily.

OH 7-13
When Using Production Charts continued
 Ensure the required standardized recipes are readily available.
 Periodically check the actual recipe yield against that listed on the standardized recipe.

OH 7-14
Waste Reports
 Critical to food cost control
 Easily completed
 Should be maintained for each shift
 May indicate
 Where training is needed
 Production concerns that require attention

OH 7-15
Sample Waste Report

OH 7-16
Analysis of Waste Reports
 Determine why each item had to be discarded.
 Develop a strategy to prevent similar future losses.
 Share findings with those who need to know.

OH 7-17
Recipe Conversions
 Step 1 – Compute the conversion factor.
Desired yield
÷
Current recipe
= Conversion factor yield

OH 7-18
Recipe Conversions continued
 Step 1 – Example
 Current yield, fifty portions
 Desired yield, forty portions
Desired yield
40 ÷ 50
= Conversion factor
= 0.80

OH 7-19
Recipe Conversions continued
 Step 2 – Convert ingredients into units that can be easily multiplied or divided.
 Convert weights to ounces.
 Convert cups, pints, and quarts to fluid ounces.

OH 7-20
Recipe Conversions continued
 Step 3 – Multiply each ingredient by the conversion factor.
 Example
96 oz x 0.80
= 76.8 oz

OH 7-21
Recipe Conversions continued
 Step 4 – Convert ingredient amounts back to normally used units.
 Example
76.8 oz ÷ 8 oz = 9.6 c; or 2 qt, 1½ c

OH 7-22
Recipe Yields
 Recipe yields must be known.
 Accurate costing of menu items is not possible without known and consistent yields from standardized recipes.
 Effective production planning is also impossible without known recipe yields.

OH 7-23
Recipe Yields continued
 To calculate a recipe yield, compute the total volume of the recipe by
 Weight—for those recipes where portion size is determined by weight.
 Volume—for those recipes where portion size is determined by volume.

OH 7-24
Calculating Recipe Yield
 Weigh or measure only the major ingredients.
 Account for cooking loss, especially for
 Meats
 Vegetables
 Fruit

OH 7-25
How Would You Answer the Following Questions?
1.
2.
3.
4.
It (is/is not) possible for a cook using a standardized recipe to create a substandard menu item.
Waste reports indicate when employees overportion and waste food. (True/False)
How many steps does the recipe conversion process have?
A.
B.
Three
Four
C.
D.
Five
Six
A recipe (yield/portion conversion) test is a calculation of the number of portions produced by a standardized recipe.

OH 7-26
Key Term Review
 Conversion factor
 Food production chart
 Recipe conversion
 Recipe yield
 Taste test
 Waste report

OH 7-27
Chapter Learning Objectives—
What Did You Learn?
 Develop a food production chart.
 Describe how a waste report helps control food costs.
 Use a conversion factor to calculate a new yield for an existing recipe.
 Determine a recipe’s yield and the number of portions it will produce.